Happy Birthday, Bertha

DARTMOUTH ­— One century ­— 100 years — is a long ride, and Marie Margarite Rosalie Bertha Fortin Beausoleil was hoping she might have a birthday party and maybe get her picture in the local newspaper.

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Posted Nov. 18, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Posted Nov. 18, 2012 at 12:01 AM

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DARTMOUTH ­— One century ­— 100 years — is a long ride, and Marie Margarite Rosalie Bertha Fortin Beausoleil was hoping she might have a birthday party and maybe get her picture in the local newspaper.

Well, Bertha, Happy Birthday from your friends at The Standard-Times. You sure look nice in the picture.

Bertha was born in Shelton, Conn. Sept. 30 of 1912, only a few months after the Titanic sank and Fenway Park opened. Her godson and great nephew Robert Melancon provided the newspaper with details about Bertha's century of living.

She was the eighth child of 10 born to Florina (Meggison) and Joseph Fortin. Her parents lost their first six children all before the age of six 6 to various diseases. But, Melancon said, two of Bertha's siblings lived well into their 90s.

The family moved to New Bedford to the south end. Her mother was a homemaker and her father a quiller, which was a good job at that time, Melancon wrote. They had a three-tenement house and owned a Maxwell car. Life was good until her father died of diabetes when Bertha was 9. The family lost everything when that happened.

Bertha attended St. Anne's School, but left by the 8th grade as she missed lots of school to take care of two younger siblings while her mother worked.

As a teen she got a job at Dartmouth Finishing and later Berkshire Hathaway Mills. She loved anything to do with cloth, Melancon said, and was a self-taught sewer.

She worked at Berkshire Hathaway until July, 1950 when she married Henri Beausoleil. She loves her last name which mean beautiful sun.

They moved to Hartford where her husband worked for Colt Manufacturing, makers of the famous Colt firearms. While Henri worked, she wanted to keep busy, so she looked around and found a tenement with five rooms she could rent out. For the next 17 years she took care of everything, Melancon said. She enjoyed the independence of being the boss. She had a great sense of humor and her tenants stayed for years, he said.

When her husband retired he wanted to go to Florida since he had had enough of New England winters. He had no interest in the business so they sold it, and for the next 13 years they lived in Florida for 6 months and then in Putnam, Conn. where her husband had a large family.

Henri died in November of 1983, 29 years ago this month. Bertha came back to New Bedford and lived with her niece Lorraine Melancon and family until she found an apartment at the Harborview Towers for 26 years, loving to be downtown near everything. When no longer able to take care of herself, she went back to live with the Melancons for a year or so before moving into Emeritus last December.

Melancon said she has adjusted and is well taken care of by a great group of people in Cedars Cottage. She loves her "Manager- Brenda" and her "bath lady" Lana.

"Her 100-year goal was a party for her 100th birthday, a cake, and her picture in the paper," he said.

So, on Sept. 30, she put on her favorite red dress and joined all the other residents of the cottage at her party. And, here's the picture.